Cast your minds back to last Christmas and one particular decorating item should come to mind: paper chains. They looped across mantelpieces and stair rails, fluttered in windows and on Instagram feeds alike, as a desire for nostalgia continued to surge in interiors and fashion.
For Katica Weekes, however, paper chains never lost their appeal in the first place. Two years before they began trending online, she started reimagining them – giving the simple craft a thoughtful, modern twist that would eventually grow into a small business.
In 2023, Katica – a lifelong crafter with a background in fashion design – celebrated her first Christmas with the man who is now her fiancé. Sensing he might be the one, she was keen to initiate a tradition of their own, and paper chains, which both had loved making as children, seemed like the perfect place to start.
"You've got your family traditions, which you uphold anyway, but we wanted to establish our own," the 43-year-old tells us. "Both of our childhoods were all about handcrafting. So I wanted to make these decorations and we just went full pelt."
Only this time, Katica swapped paper for fabric. She stitched each link individually, adding a discreet snap button, so the chains could be assembled and taken apart year after year – and one day be passed down to the next generation. The result – which she now calls fabric chains – retains the nostalgic childhood pleasure of looping each piece together.
As so often happens with a good idea, word spread. Friends and family began requesting their own sets. There was bunting for a birthday, then more orders flooded in. Soon after that first shared Christmas, the seed of a business had been planted. "In 2024, my fiancé just looked at me and said, 'This is really good. You could really do more with this'," Katica recalls.
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It wasn't until 2025, when she was made redundant from her role as an office manager in a telecommunications company, that she decided to dedicate herself to the brand full-time. "I was happy with that," she says now. "I think my headspace was: I want to craft. So it's just been a long time coming."
Today, Katica sells her handmade decorations – cheerful fabric chains and colourful buntings in cotton and polycotton prints – on her website and at local markets. In November 2025, at the Country Living Christmas Market in London, she was awarded Best Newcomer, a moment she describes as affirming and "a real shock to the soul".
For the Hackney-based maker, it's only the beginning. "I want to be established as a quality decoration gift brand," she says.
"I want to be a staple part of a community where people come to me or my brand to create a small moment for someone, to make that person feel special. That's what I want to evoke in people. That's my aspiration."
There is something undeniably heartening about that sentiment. What began as a simple act of love – two people sitting down to make paper chains together – has unfurled into something bigger, yet still rooted in the same intention: to create small rituals that bring people closer.
For Katica, it's yet bigger than that. "It was something so special for us that it flourished in the most positive way," she reflects. "It allowed me to embody who I truly was."
Shop Katica's fabric decorations on Katica London.
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Wanda Sachs is the Multiplatform Writer for Country Living and House Beautiful, exploring the latest in gardening, wildlife and sustainable living alongside interiors and property. She is particularly interested in human-interest stories, the intersection of design and pop culture, and the evolving relationship between urban and rural life. Previously, she served as Associate Editor at The Berliner in Berlin, where she reported on culture and fashion. Wanda studied English and German at the Goethe University Frankfurt and Exeter University.
